


Five Paths they Could Have Taken Out of Falena (and once the way was barred)

by Mithrigil



Category: Suikoden V
Genre: Alternate Timelines, F/M, Star-crossed, any way but the way we must
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-07
Updated: 2012-03-07
Packaged: 2017-11-01 14:53:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/358083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithrigil/pseuds/Mithrigil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fairy tales have to be true sometimes, right? If they weren’t ever true, no one would tell them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Paths they Could Have Taken Out of Falena (and once the way was barred)

**1\. South**

Sialeeds is an absolute _genius_ at running away. Gizel stands in utter awe of her: nine years old and glamorous, queen-in-her-own-right of crocodile tears and the sniffles that earn them passage on a boat, to Raftfleet first and then wherever Raftfleet goes next. Sialeeds is smart, and a different kind of smart than Gizel: she can’t write or read as well as he can, but she knows what jewels to bring and sell, how to hide, how to turn her wind magic onto the water to get away in time.

Gizel doesn’t quite understand, and he _would_ like to be home with his mother instead sometimes, but Sialeeds is more important. And smart. And when they get to Armes, he can write to his mother and tell her they’re both okay. Maybe King Jalat will take them in, like in the fairy tales, and they’ll be a princess in exile and her dashing knight, and even if they can’t be Queen and Lord Commander someday it’ll be just as good because they’ll be together.

Fairy tales have to be true sometimes, right? If they weren’t ever true, no one would tell them.

 

**2\. East**

Sialeeds tugs on her brother-in-law’s sleeve -- on his sword-arm side, this time, like he told her to after last time. And this time, it’s doubly important, since he’s got the sword out and they can’t trust any of the guards, any of them at all, they could be her mother’s or her aunt’s and neither is safe. “Ferid?”

“Good, you’re safe. Just give me a second, your Highness --”

“We don’t have a second,” she says. “You need to make room in the boat. Now.”

Ferid knows what _now_ means at a time like this, and stands aside just in time for Gizel to pass out, slump out of Sialeeds’ arms, right on top of Arshtat.

Arshtat gasps, her Flowing Rune already glowing, but Ferid’s the one to take stock of all the blood on Sialeeds’s clothes and cheeks and hands, from holding it in. “What happened?”

“He stood up the Aunt Shahrewar. For me. It was -- it was supposed to be for me, it might be poisoned, I don’t know, Ferid, he’s so stupid he took a knife for me and I don’t know what to do --”

“We’ve got him now, your Highness, we’ll get him help.”

“He’s coming with us,” Sialeeds says.

“We can’t take him, they’ll think he’s a hostage.”

“No!”

Her voice echoes on the stone, the river, the bodies of men who’ve already died in her mother’s pointless war. In Arshtat’s arms, Gizel breathes weakly, delirious but alive.

“He’s coming with us,” Sialeeds repeats. “And we’re never coming back.”

 

**3\. West**

“And you’ll be Lady Godwin,” he says, and if his voice cracks he can say it’s desperation and excitement, not just _fifteen_. “We haven’t had a Lady Godwin in years, the servants don’t know what to do anymore.”

“It won’t be any different than what they do when I’m Princess,” she says.

“Sure, it will. I mean, you’ll still have everything you ask for, but it won’t be because they have to. It’ll be because they love you.”

“Because I’m Lady Godwin.”

“Because you’re Godwin,” he corrects. “We obey the Falenas. But we love our own. And they’ll love you, and I’ll love you, and we’ll have sons and love them too --“

“Stop it, Gizel.”

“No, your Highness -- no,” he breathes, keeps breathing, “Lady Godwin. Let me call you that, and your sister won’t think it’s a coup.”

“But it _is_ a coup, Gizel.”

“Only if we want to make you queen. But we don’t. Lady Godwin, we _love_ you. Tell me you don’t like the sound of that.”

“Call me by my given name if you love me so much.”

It’s like thievery on his tongue, but he does.

 

**4\. Seaward**

It would have been so much easier if they were in Stormfist to begin with. He’d have stolen one of his father’s boats. He’ll have to do that when they get to Hershville anyway, there’s no way this little royal riverfare is going to make it when they take to the sea. But he can. And he will.

But for now, they’re faster than the guards, and the currents are on their side, and the stars light the way West, past the gates of Hershville and then, nothing but water, nothing but hope.

And if they’re quick about getting past Nirva, she won’t have the child at sea.

 

**5\. North**

He comes to visit her in Lunas for months at a time. The Senate is the Senate, and his father is his father, but it’s only in session for so many months of the year, and Lunas and its oracle are a true reprieve.

Sialeeds is a better oracle than she gives herself credit for. She certainly knows how to say what the royals want to hear. And, in the public eye at least, she maintains an image of indefatigable holiness, untouchable and divine. She always has, and she’s always known how, with paints and tinctures and garments that exalt her in the eyes of all who behold her.

Except Gizel, with his entirely unsacred privilege to behold her as she is.

 

**0\. Up**

Gizel is Lord Commander, just like in the games they used to play. The uniform is sewn the way he always said it would be when they were children, lined in the red of his father’s flag. The gold suits his hair, and the black his complexion, and the red is best of all, framing him, pervading him, as inextricable from his person as the games that got him here.

But he is Lord Commander, and Sialeeds is not Queen. And without that, they may as well not be together at all.

***


End file.
